Not coincidentally, the most recent issue of Water International (which is guest edited by yours truly) focuses on “Strengthening Cooperation on Transboundary Groundwater Resources.” The special issue is a compilation of articles and essays on the development of international ground water law and focuses, in large part, on the draft articles. The issue also includes a number of relevant and fascinating case studies. Here is the table of contents:

If you haven’t seen this report, its very interesting and timely. The UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Global Environmental Facility (GEF) have just published a global review of legal and institutional frameworks for 28 transboundary surface water, groundwater and marine water systems covering the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia (full report can be found here). The report was spearheaded by Richard Kyle Paisley, Director for the Global Transboundary International Waters Research Initiative at the University of British Columbia. Here is an excerpt from the description:

The project, with a life-cycle of three years, seeks to facilitate good governance and effective decision making in international waters through the identification, collection, adaptation and replication of beneficial practices and lessons learned from a wide range of experiences. The project focuses on institutional harmonization and strengthening, capacity building in regard to integrated water management, and forecasting the hydrological impacts from climate change and the anticipated responses to these changes.

The report’s analysis is organized by a common set of 18 criteria and is intended to provide information that can be used to support further research and analysis, with the ultimate goal of identifying a set of common elements of good governance for transboundary freshwater and marine water bodies as well as groundwater systems. This report is based on primary materials that establish legal and institutional frameworks, such as international agreements including treaties and conventions, where applicable, protocols or action plans.

You may have heard the old adage that water will flow uphill toward money. It comes from the cynical political perspective that believes physics and gravity irrelevant in the management and allocation of fresh water resources. Putting that cynicism aside, water and all of its benefits and impacts have long been accepted to be at the total mercy of gravity and topography. In other words, absent artificial inducement, water will always descend to the lowest possible elevation. In an upstream-downstream relationship, this suggests that the upstream riparian always holds all of the cards and has effective control of the water. It also suggests that harm on the river could only be caused by an upstream riparian to a lower riparian. If it were only so clear-cut …

Dr. Salman M.A. Salman, formerly a legal advisor to The World Bank, just published a fascinating analysis on the harm that downstream riparians can inflict on their upstream neighbors through the concept of foreclosure of future uses. The article – Downstream riparians can also harm upstream riparians: the concept of foreclosure of future uses – appears in the latest issue of Water International, the official journal of the International Water Resources Association, and can be accessed free-of-charge here. In short, by claiming and enforcing water rights secured prior to those claimed by upper riparians, the downstream riparian can attempt to legally foreclose all possible future uses by its upstream neighbors. According to Dr. Salman, however, such foreclosure can constitute harm in violation of the “no significant harm” rule widely recognized as a cornerstone principle of international water law (and, more broadly, of international environmental law).

Dr. Salman article is likely to be highly controversial. Downstream riparians – such as Egypt, India, and Pakistan – have long championed the “no significant harm” rule and used it as their bulwark against claims by upstream neighbors aspiring to develop and exploit their riparian character. Now, such advocacy could become a two-edged sword. Nevertheless, Dr. Salman’s argument is straight-forward and erudite and is supported by pertinent case studies and scholarly pronouncements, including examples from the Nile and Ganges Rivers, the 1997 Gabčikovo–Nagymaros case (International Court of Justice), and the Baardhere Dam and Water Infrastructure Project on the Juba River in Somalia. Hence, there is no need to rehash his argument here. It merely suffices to say: downstream riparians, beware.

The principal challenge facing nations today is how to ensure that both people and the natural environment have adequate freshwater to sustain and nourish their existence. In many parts of the world, communities actually compete with nature for dwindling supplies, to the detriment of both. Most often, though, water for the environment is a secondary or even non-priority in water management practices, the result of which has gravely impacted the natural environment, especially the aquatic environment.

Water is an inseparable component of life, both human and environmental. It forms a relationship based on the intricacies of both the hydrologic cycle and the interdependencies of all life on Earth. When water resources are degraded, they can impact every form of life, including human life. The challenge, therefore, is to overcome the need for competition and to find ways to harmonize the water requirements of people with those of the natural environment.

Potentially, the most effective means for achieving such harmonization is to integrate environmental concerns into national and international water laws and policies. The goal of such integration is to ensure that the water needs of both people and the natural environment are considered collectively and balanced in a way that will further the sustainable use of freshwater resources while maintaining ecosystem integrity.

The greening of water law is both a theoretical and practical effort to implement that harmony through modification of the legal regime governing the management and allocation of freshwater resources. It is based on the recognition that the life and wellbeing of people and the natural environment are interrelated and even interdependent and that the coordination of the needs of these two water-dependent stakeholders will further the sustainable use of freshwater resources for both. It is also founded on the notion that by ensuring adequate supplies of clean freshwater for the environment, people, communities, and nations, the human condition can be enhanced through improved health and more sustainable resource exploitation and economic development.

Special thanks to Lara Ognibene, Arnold Kreilhuber, and Sarah Muchiri at UNEP for the wonderful opportunity to work on this project, and for their support throughout the process.

In another sign that we are becoming more immersed in the communication age, UNESCO-IHE, along with partners, recently launched an interesting new on-line water video channel called “The Water Channel.”As described on its website:

TheWaterChannel brings together several strands: insights in today’s water challenges, multimedia expertise and a passion for better water management and better water services for a growing world. Apart from the website, TheWaterChannel is a repository of visual water material and a media facility. TheWaterChannel provides the following services:

Hosting of videos on www.thewaterchannel.tv and their active promotion through local broadcasts, social media, real-time announcements and linkage to special target groups

Media management – management of video material within organizations, converting and processing (voice over, trailers and others), broadcasting and dissemination of new and old material

Theme development – bringing together videos on special themes, adding supplementary material and special activities to bring the theme to the attention of a large audience

This service could be a good way to organize all of the wonderful water-related video material currently scattered on YouTube and other video websites. It also seems a great way to aid NGOs and others to develop video material and to disseminate their information.

Welcome to the first post to my City Brights blog. I look forward to sharing with you some of my thoughts about the water challenges facing California, the West, and our world. I hope this blog will be somewhat different than others. What I hope to do is to explore the threats and challenges to our freshwater resources and to discuss available, viable solutions to those threats, drawing from not only my experiences and viewpoint, but also by way of numbers. I will include in each post an important, unusual, or newsworthy “water number” that I hope will highlight some piece of the water issue. And now to begin the discussion…

In his first commentary, Peter briefly discusses the number “one billion” – that is roughly the number of people around the world who are without access to improved, safe, or affordable drinking water.

Having followed Peter’s work, I look forward to many more interesting posts and commentaries.